Narrow-minded literalists would just say “well, He must know something we don’t - blood MUST be bad for you somehow!” … but that’s just cheating. Yes, God said not to do it and so we shouldn’t - but that doesn’t tell us WHY! And knowing WHY is NECESSARY if we are to ever come to know the mind of God!
That the commandment against eating blood has nothing overtly to do with “health” is evident by the fact that many cultures around the world consume blood on a daily basis and rather than being unhealthy for it, are far healthier than we are. In African tribes such as the Masai it is a staple of the diet, and cattle are milked and bled on a regular basis. And yet God lays down the law repeatedly that blood is never to be consumed. So why? Ironically, this is one of those questions that is solved in the very verse that introduces the concept in the first place. It’s so simple it’s almost not worth writing about and yet… no one else seems to know the answer so I guess I might as well be the one. And who knows, I might even be able to make it interesting… and of course, I am going to tease the answer a bit - just for fun… Read the rest of this entry »